Flat wire basket and method of making the same



Nov. 12, 1968 J. E. MCKNETT, JR 3,410,545

FLAT WIR E BASKET AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME Filed June 16, 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 I N VEN TOR.

Nov. 12, 1968 JR 3,410,545

FLAT WIRE BASKET AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME Filed June 16, 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Nov. 12, 1968 JR 3,410,545

FLAT WIRE BASKET AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME Filed June 16, 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 1 N VEN TOR.

iTTOH/VEVS United States Patent Ofice 3,410,545 Patented Nov. 12, 1968 3,410,545 FLAT WIRE BASKET AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME Joseph E. McKnett, Jr., Cambridge, Md. assignor to Cambridge Wire Cloth Company, Cambridge, Md., a corporation of Maryland Filed June 16, 1967, Ser. No. 646,509 Claims. (Cl. 26347) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A basket or tray made from a plurality of wickets or crimped fiat wires intermeshed and coupled together by means of rods, the side walls of the basket being bent upwardly from the base wall and being integrally connected thereto and the end walls being pivotally connected to the base wall and being pivoted into an upwardly extending position whereby the upwardly extending edges of the side walls and end walls are joined together so as to form the preferable embodiments of the basket or tray, and a method of forming a basket of this description.

Background and summary of invention The basket or tray described herein is commonly used in heat treating operations and the like wherein the basket carries articles which are to be subjected to heat treatments. The basket is porous without blind spots or restricted areas thereby exposing the articles to heat and enabling efiicient, uniform movement of the cooling fluid in and out of the basket. In operation, the basket is subjected to extremes of high and low heat thereby causing expansion and contraction of the basket. The basket or tray can also be used as a food processing basket, a storage bin basket, a chemical processing basket, a dipping basket, a filtering basket, and a washing, drying, and/or rinsing basket, and the like.

Heretofore, it was often desirable to have baskets of considerable strength, but as strength was increased, the weight was also increased. Moreover, with heavier baskets, the expansion properties for high temeperature applications were poor. The basket described herein provides a much stronger and more rigid basket for a given weight with excellent expansion properties for high temerature applications. When properly bent, the fiat wire fabric not only becomes rigid, but it forms its own frame or strength structure. Moreover, the basket is not dependent on welds for its structure as are many designs. Such welds hinder the expansion property of the basket. Moreover, the basket material is of wrought metal, such as plain carbon steel, alloy steel, stainless steels, or heat resisting steels, as opposed to cast metal, which is particularly important for high temperature applications where wrought metals have better expansion properties and allow lighter constructions. The crimped flat Wires, having a depth considerably greater than the width thereof, offer considerable resistance to bending thereby increasing the compressive strength of the basket bottom and hence of the basket itself while keeping the overall weight to a minimum.

The advantages described above are accomplished by making the basket out of flat wire belting material comprising corrugated or crimped flat wires, each intermeshed with the adjacent flat wire and hingedly connected together by means of a rod. In the ordinary basket with four sides, two of the sides are formed by bending the flat wire fabric upwardly along an axis transverse to the flat wires and rods. The other two sides, referred to herein as ends, of the basket are simply pivoted upwardly about one of the rods interconnecting adjacent flat wires.

Brief description of the drawings FIGURE 1 is a fragmented, perspective view of the basket embodying the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a plan view of one-half of the fiat Wire belt blank prior to construction into the basket, the other half being the mirror image of that shown, the longitudinal center line of the blank appearing at AA;

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged plan view of one corner of the wire fabric shown in FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary, plan view of one wicket;

FIGURE 5 is a front view of the wicket shown in FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 6 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line 6--6 of FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 7 is a sectional view corresponding to a sectional view shown in FIGURE 6 showing a modification of the rod holes;

FIGURE 8 is an enlarged, fragmentary, perspective view, taken from inside the basket, of the juncture of the side wall and base wall where the side Wall is bent upwardly along a fold line intersecting the root surface of the crimp of a flat wire; and

FIGURE 9 is an enlarged, fragmentary, perspective view, taken from outside the basket, of the juncture of the side wall and base wall where the side wall is bent upwardly along a fold line passing through the point where adjacent crimps overlap each other.

Description of the preferred embodiment FIGURE 1 shows a fully constructed basket or tray 10 embodying the principles of the invention. The basket 10 is described as having a base wall or bottom 12, side walls 14 disposed from each other along a transverse axis designated at 16 and end walls 18 disposed from each other along a longitudinal axis designated at 20. As will be described in greater detail hereinafter, the side walls 14 are integrally connected to the base wall and are bent into position while the end walls are pivotally connected to the base wall and are easily pivoted into position. A different orientation of the elements from which the basket is constructed could find the side walls, as defined above, oriented along the longitudinal axis of the basket and the end walls (or tail gates), along the transverse axis of the basket.

The basket 10 is constructed from a piece of flat wire belting material or blank 22 shown in FIGURES 2 and 3; thus the sides, ends, and base of the basket are uniformly constructed. The flat wire belt 22 comprises a plurality of wickets or crimped fiat wires 24 which are intermeshed (i.e., interdigitated) and pivotally interconnected by means of rods 26.

An individual wicket or crimped flat wire is shown in FIGURES 4-6. The wicket could also be described as a corrugated flat wire or a flat wire of convoluted shape. One convolution 28 would be measured from point 30 to point 30' on the adjacent convolution, as shown in FIGURE 4, and comprises a fiat portion 32 lying in and defining the plane of the flat wire and a crimp portion 34 defined by crimp side walls 36 and a crimp root wall 38. The crimp is of approximately trapezoidal shape, the base of which comprises an imaginary line in the plane of the flat portion 32. As will be appreciated, the crimps lie on one side of the flat wire once the plane of the flat wire has been established. As illustrated in the drawings, the plane of the flat wire extends transversely of the belt and when incorporated in the belt, the wickets or crimped fiat wires are substantially parallel to each other. It is further obvious that either one of the transverse segments (32 or 38) could define the plane of the fiat wire from which the direction of the crimps is determined.

The crimps 34 are transversely spaced from each other and the crimp side walls 36 converge toward each other and toward the crimp root wall 38. The converging side walls 36 of the crimps 34 have transversely facing holes 40 extending therethrough adjacent each end of the crimp side walls, i.e., adjacent the transverse segments (32 and 38) of the wicket. The holes are adapted to receive rods 26, and as a result, they are larger than the rods. As shown in FIGURE 6, the holes are round, while a modification shown in FIGURE 7 shows the holes as being elongated. The flat wire itself is as long as required for a belt of a particular width and has a depth 42 considerably greater than its width 44. As an example, the size of the flat wire might be /z" x and round wire sizes might be, for example, 12, 11 or 6 US. Steel wire guage sizes. The flat wire belt provides excellent resistance to compressive load because the increased depth resists bending while minimizing the total weight of the belt.

In constructing the basket, one would select a piece of fiat wire belting long enough and wide enough to make the basket desired. By laying the belt or blank out fiat, all four corners would be carefully cut away preferably allowing sufiicient extra length of rods to be used for clinching adjacent sides at the corners of the basket.

The fabric so formed would take the configuration of a Greek cross, one-half of which is shown in FIGURE 2 having, for the purposes of identification, two side arms 46 which will eventually form the side walls 16 of the basket and two end arms 48 which will eventually form the end walls 18 of the basket.

The side arms 46 of the cross of the blank are bent upwardly about an axis 50 which is perpendicular to the rods and wickets, and, as illustrated, lies longitudinally of the belt, so as to form the side walls 16 of the basket. The bending of the arms is accomplished by use of a power brake or some other appropriate device. The end arms of the cross of the blank are then pivoted upwardly about an axis 52 perpendicular to the first axis 50 and defined by one of the rods to form the end walls 18. As illustrated, this axis lies transversely of the belting material, and the end arms are pivoted upwardly in the same manner as a tail gate. The upwardly extending edges 54 of the end walls are joined to the adjacent upwardly extending edges 56 of the side walls. Desirably, the edges are joined by clinching the extra rod lengths of the end wall which were left when the corners of the belting fabric were removed. The end wall rods are bent around the crimped root walls and rods of the adjacent side wall wicket defining the upwardly extending edge of the side wall. The joining of the upwardly extending edges of the end wall and side wall could be effected by welding or brazing, rather than clinching, although the latter method of joining (clinching) is preferred because of the flexibility permitted when the basket expands and contracts during heat treatment operations.

It will be readily apparent that the side and end walls of the basket are made out of the same material as the base wall. Moreover, inasmuch as the side walls are defined as being bent upwardly about an axis perpendicular to the wickets and rods, it is integrally connected to the base wall through the bent rods and wickets. On the other hand, the end wall, while being of the same material, is only pivotally connected to the base wall by means of a rod. It will be seen that the crimps of adjacent base wall wickets and end wall wickets are intermeshed and pivotally connected by a rod at the junctures of the base wall and end walls. The bending of the side walls not only bends both the round wire and crimped fiat wire, but also prevents any further hinging action of the belt material contained between the side walls. When the end walls are joined to the side walls, they also become rigidized thereby providing a basket which forms its own frame or strength structure.

As described above, the rods extend transversely of the basket and the side walls are bent upwardly on an axis perpendicular to the rods. The basket could be formed with the rods defining the long dimension of the basket, and the end walls would be transversely disposed with respect to each other. However, some increase in load carrying ability is evident when the rods extend transversely of the basket.

When the basket is constructed as described above, it will be seen that the holes of the base wall crimps and end wall crimps, as well as the rods passing therethrough, are aligned on transverse axes, the holes of each wicket being coaxial so as to receive a straight rod. The holes of the side wall crimps, as well as the rods passing therethrough, are aligned on axes angularly inclined to the transverse alignment of the holes of the base wall crimps, and the axis of the holes of the base wall crimps and of the side wall crimps of each wicket fall within an imaginary plane substantially perpendicular to the base wall.

The crimped fiat wire construction of the base wall enables the basket to be driven by a sprocket gear if desired. Moreover, as illustrated in FIGURE 1, skids 58 separating wicket sections in the base wall and mounted on the continuous rods could be provided. The skids extend below the bottom surface of the bottom wall and allow the basket to ride thereon. Furthermore handle means could be secured to the opposed upwardly extending basket end walls. As illustrated in FIGURE 1, the bandle means comprises a U-shaped rod 60 having the free end portions 62 thereof secured to the wickets of the end walls, as by welds.

As shown in FIGURE 3, the side wall may be bent about an axis or fold line perpendicular to the rods and wickets. Fold line 64 is one axis upon which the wickets and rods have been bent. This fold line or axis 64 intersects a transverse segment 66 of the wicket (i.e., a crimp root wall 38 or portion 32 of the wicket lying in and defining the plane of the fiat wire) results in the bend occurring substantially in this transverse segment 66 of the wicket although the crimp side wall 68 connected thereto and lying in the plane of the base wall also is somewhat distorted. The resulting fold is shown in detail in FIGURE 8. As shown in this figure, the hole 70 in the bent crimp side wall 68 faces transversely in alignment with the transverse segment of the rod and the other hole 72 in the crimp side wall 74, lying in the plane of the side wall, is coaxially aligned with the upwardly extending portion of the same rod and thus on an axis angularly inclined with respect to the axi of hole 70. Thus, the major portion of the bend or twist in the wicket in FIGURE 8 occurs in a transverse wicket segment mounted on the same rod.

It has been found, however, that it is preferable to bend the side wall about a fold line 78 (FIGURE 3) which approximately extends between, and i defined by, the points 80 located approximately at the point where the crimps of adjacent wickets overlap each other. That is, the crimps overlap where the ends of the crimp side walls overlap so that their respective holes 40 are in alignment to receive a rod. The spread 81 (see FIG. 4) of the wickets, as illustrated, is the transverse dimension of one convolution. In order to accommodate the intermeshing of adjacent wickets, the spread of a particular wicket is sufficiently wide to accommodate the transverse elements of adjacent wickets. Generally, there is a small gap between adjacent overlapping crimp side walls although the side walls could be touching if adjacent wickets happened to be laterally adjusted into abutting relationship at this point.

As shown in detail in FIGURE 9, the bend occurs substantially in the crimp side wall 82 intersected by the fold line 78'although the first transversely oriented segment 84 in the side wall is somewhat twisted. As shown with respect to the holes of the crimp side wall 82, one hole 86 faces transversely in alignment with the transverse segment of the rod and the other hole 88 is coaxially aligned with the upwardly extending portion of the adjacent rod and thus on an axis angularly inclined with respect to the axis of hole 86. Moreover, the major portion of the bend or twist in the wicket in FIGURE 9 occurs in a wicket element (i.e., crimp side wall 82) extending between adjacent substantially parallel rods.

As will be seen from a comparison of FIGURES 8 and 9, the construction of FIGURE 9 produces a much more rigid basket and for that reason is important in some applications. If nuts and bolts were carried in the basket, a minor amount of fiexibility would be of no particular concern. However, if the basket held a plurality of upright tubular members, which had been sent through some heat treatment, such flexibility might upset these members. The flexibility in FIGURE 8 results in part from the freedom in movement allowed at point 90 and from the spreading in the wicket trapezoidal crimps 34 allowing slight separation at points 80 (see FIGURE 3 although the separation is so small that it is not shown in this drawing). In FIGURE 9 there is no gap between the wicket and the rod at the bend of the rod. Moreover, portion 92 of the bent crimp side wall 82, lying horizontally, abuts the vertical edge 94 of the adjacent wicket and compressively holds it against lateral displacement. Thus, in bending the side wall, the wicket trapezoidal crimps 34 are forced into tight abutment at points 80 and frictionally hold the wicket segments of the bottom wall 12 and side walls 14. To be forced into tight abutment where the ends of the side Walls of intermeshed crimps touch, the spread 81 must be decreased. Further, the twisting of the bent crimp side wall 82 reduces the pitch 96, i.e., the distance between the holes 86 and 88 causing the rods to be pulled hard against the extremities of the holes. This construction further rigidizes the bottom wall 12 and side walls 14 along the fold line 78.

Heretofore, the basket has been described as having two sides and two ends. Of course, just as the transverse and longitudinal orientation of the basket can be changed within the scope of the invention, it is possible to eliminate the end walls and even one of the side walls within the scope of the invention. If only one side wall is bent upwardly, the other end of the rod would have to be secured to the oppositely disposed edge of the base wall by clinching (as the rods are now shown secured with respect to the free transverse edges of the belting material), brazing, welding, or some other means. Thus, within the scope of this invention the basket may be defined by a base and one or more upwardly extending Walls, and could be referred to as a tray.

Moreover, the basket formed as described above could serve as a frame for a fine mesh wire cloth liner which can be made to fit snugly inside the basket to retain small parts or filter out certain media. These liners could be welded in place or be removable.

While a preferred form of the invention has been illustrated in the drawings and discussed above, it should be adequately clear that considerable modification may be made thereto without departing from the principles of the invention. Therefore, the foregoing should be considered in an illustrative sense rather than a limiting sense, and accordingly the extent of this invention should be limited only by the spirit and scope of the claims appended hereto.

What is claimed is:

1. A basket comprising:

a plurality of intermeshed, substantially parallel wickets defining at least a base Wall and at least one upwardly extending side wall, each wicket comprising a fiat wire having spaced crimps on one side of the flat wire, each crimp being defined by at least two converging crimp side walls, the crimps of adjacent flat wires in the plane of each wall being intermeshed;

rods extending through the intermeshed crimps of adjacent wickets so as to pivotally interconnect adjacent wickets; and

the wickets defining the side wall being integrally and rigidly connected to the wickets defining the base wall and forming an upwardly projecting extension thereof.

2. The basket defined in claim 1 additionally comprising a second side wall transversely disposed from and constructed similarly to the first side wall and integrally and rigidly connected to the base wall and upwardly extending end walls defined by a plurality of intermeshed, substantially parallel wickets substantially similar to the wickets defining the base wall and side walls, rods extending through the intermeshed crimps of the end walls, and the adjacent base wall wickets and end wall wickets being intermeshed and pivotally connected by a rod, and means for joining the upwardly extending edges of the end walls to the upwardly extending edge of the adjacent side walls.

3. The basket defined in claim 2 wherein each of the crimp side walls has a pair of holes adjacent opposite ends of the crimp side walls, the holes in the side walls of adjacent crimps of the same wicket being aligned so as to receive a rod.

4. The basket defined in claim 3 wherein the holes are elongated in cross sectional configuration.

5. The basket defined in claim 3 wherein the holes of the base wall crimps and the end wall crimps are transversely aligned and wherein the holes of the side wall crimps are aligned on an axis angularly inclined to the traverse alignment of the holes of the base wall crimps, the axis of the holes of the base wall crimps and of the side Wall crimps of each wicket falling within an imaginary plane substantially perpendicular to the base wall.

6. The basket defined in claim 2 wherein the means for joining the upwardly extending edges of the end walls to the upwardly extending edges of the adjacent side walls comprises the rods extending solely through the crimps of the end walls.

7. The basket defined in claim 2 additionally comprising longitudinally extending skids separating wicket sections in the base wall and mounted on continuous rods so as to extend below the bottom surface of the bottom wall.

8. The basket defined in claim 2 additionally comprising handle means secured to two disposed upwordly extending basket walls.

9. The basket defined in claim 8 wherein the handle means is a U-shaped rod having the free end portions thereof secured to the wickets of the end walls.

10. A basket comprising:

a plurality of intermeshed, substantially parallel wickets defining at least a base well, upwardly extending end walls and upwardly extending side walls, each Wicket comprising a flat wire having spaced crimps on one side of the flat wire, each crimp being defined by at least two converging cirmp side walls, the crimps of adjacent fiat wires in the plane of each wall being intermeshed;

rods extending through the intermeshed crimps of adjacent wickets so as to pivotally interconnect adjacent wickets;

the wickets defining the side walls being integrally and rigidly connected to the wickets defining the base wall and forming an upwardly projecting extension thereof, the end walls being pivotally connected to the base wall through the pivotal connection of intermeshed crimps of adjacent base wall wickets and end wall wickets at the junctures of the base wall and end wall; and

means for joining the upwardly extending edges of the end walls to the upwardly extending edges of the adjacent side walls.

11. A basket blank comprising:

a plurality of intermeshed, substantially parallel wickets, each wicket comprising a flat wire having spaced crimps on one side of the flat wire, each crimp being defined by at least two converging side walls, the crimps of adjacent wires being intermeshed;

rods extending through the intermeshed crimps of adjacent wickets so as to pivotally intermesh adjacent wickets; and

means defining a fold line lying perpendicular to the rods about which the wickets and rods are adapted to be bent to define a side wall and base wall rigidly and integrally connected together.

12. A method of making a basket from a blank comprising a fiat wire piece of belting comprising a plurality of intermeshed, substantially parallel wickets, each wicket comprising a Hat wire having spaced crimps on one side of the flat wire, each crimp being defined by at least two converging side walls, the crimps of adjacent wires being intermeshed and interconnected by means of rods extending through the intermeshed crimps of adjacent wickets comprising the step of:

bending one edge portion of the blank about an axis perpendicular to the rods into an upwardly extending side wall rigidly and integrally connected to the remaining portion of the blank.

13. The method defined in claim 12 additionally com prising the step of bending a second edge portion oppositely disposed from the first edge portion about an axis perpendicular to the rods into an upwardly extending side wall rigidly and integrally connected to the remaining portion of the blank.

14. The method defined in claim 13 additionally comprising the steps of joining at least one end wall to the base wall comprising the unbent portion of the blank, and

connecting the upwardly extending edges of the end wall to the upwardly extending edges of the side wall.

15. A method of making a basket comprising a pair of side walls, at least one end wall, and a base wall from a cross-shaped, flat wire piece of belting comprising a plurality of intermeshed, substantially parallel wickets, each wicket comprising a flat wire having spaced crimps on one side of the fiat wire, each crimp being defined by at least two converging side walls, the crimps of adjacent wires being intermeshed and interconnected by means of rods comprising the steps of:

bending opposite side arms of the cross-shaped piece of belting upwardly about an axis perpendicular to the rods;

pivoting opposite end arms of the cross-shaped piece of belting about a rod into an upwardly extending posi tion; and

joining together the adjacent upwardly extending edges of the side arms and end arms.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,825,481 3/1958 Glenny 220-19 2,962,273 11/ 1960 Moore. 3,022,058 2/ 1962 Bixby et al. 3,044,755 7/1962 Bixby. 3,084,966 4/1963 Higgins 220l9 X JOHN J. CAMBY, Primary Examiner. 

